Steel
by DJValkyrie
Summary: Out of all the things one could expect to do with a bachelor's degree in biology, becoming a body piercer was the last thing you'd expect. Spin off from 'Petals and Sketches,' the florist & tattoo artist!AU
**A/N:**

'Ello, this is a little spin off to 'Petals and Sketches.' It's a fast paced origin story for everyone's favourite salty lesbian, Umi. 

DISCALIMER: Don't own anything, all rights go to the respectful owners.

* * *

When she walked onto the stage, met with the polite applause from the audience, plus a few whistles and cheers from her fellow archery club members, Umi couldn't help but smile. It was nice to be recognised as someone intelligent enough to get a degree, and to be allowed entry into the University's hall of fame as one of the best archers to ever attend their facility.

However, she couldn't help but feel that some of the eyes upon her were filled with judgment, with disgusted looks on their faces as she shook the dean's hand and accepted her degree.

Four years of university, four years of washing a lab coat and learning about living, and she finally graduated, robes adorned and draped over her body to hide her tattoos, and she had take out all of her facial piercings for the ceremony and photos that followed suit.

* * *

Job application after job application, the fresh, new student with a brand spanking new degree was finding it rather difficult to land a form of income in the biology field. She'd dress for the job she wanted, even if it meant taking out every single piercing she had and wearing long clothes to hide the tattoos, but the response was still the same.

"Miss Sonoda, you have the qualifications, but unfortunately, you're not the person we're looking for."

Every time she heard those words, her heart dropped into her stomach. The person on the other side of the desk might as well have just told her that she just wasted four years of her life on a useless degree and to fuck off and fall down.

Every time she'd get turned down, the girl in her early twenties would sulk back to her home, lock herself in her bedroom and begin the momentous task of putting in all her piercings again.

* * *

It was in a _Starbucks_ with her friend for university that Umi had the epiphany.

"How's the archery tutoring going?"

"It's fine, but it's mind-numbing, to be honest," Umi rubbed her temples with a frown.

"But it's something, right?"

"It's something, but it's not the right thing," She sulked. Her ginger-haired friend bit her lip, and decided to change the topic. Her friend had been in such a slum since graduating university.

"W-Well, you had that job interview for a lab position, yeah? How did that go?"

"Didn't get it."

"Oh…"

"I don't know, Honoka, it just seem no one wants me for work," She stared into her green tea latte with a perfect down-curved mouth.

"Huh? But there are tones of ads for biology!" The redhead pointed at the tablet in front of them. Umi sighed and shrunk into herself.

"I said they don't want me for work."

"Oh…" Honoka eyed the beautiful wave tattooed on her left bicep. Umi, despite growing up in a very traditional Japanese family, loved tattoos and piercings. She looked happy when she was out and about with them exposed, her piercings glinting in the sun and proudly displaying the artwork on her body.

"H-Hey, Umi-chan?" Honoka had gone back to looking at her tablet, and suddenly, something hit her.

"Hmm?" The blue-haired girl looked up, still sad. Honoka enlarged the screen and whirled the tablet around to face her friend. The headline wasn't for a job application, but a course description.

'TOKYO COLLEGE OF BEAUTY THERAPY, COSMETICS AND PHARMACY,

OFFERING COURSES IN STERILIZATION, MAKEUP, BODY PIERCINGS AND MUCH MORE!'

"Look at this!"

Umi glanced at the screen, and instantly grimaced, as if she had just seen a dead animal on the side of the road.

"H-Honoka! I can't be a makeup artist!"

"Not the makeup, silly!" Honoka tapped her finger on one of the other courses the college offered: Body Piercing.

"They offer a certificate in something you love!"

"What the-" Umi looked closer, reading the blurb about the course. Her eyes instantly lit up.

"I…I studied anatomy for a couple of semesters…"

"Yeah!"

"I know the ins and outs of the human body well enough..."

"Yeah!"

"Why would I need this course?"

Honoka let out a groan and threw her head into her free hand.

"Umi-chan, you dolt! Why don't you take the course? It could be similar to biology, don't you think?"

"Wh-what could I possibly get with a certificate in body piercing?! Plus my parents would kill me! My father already can't stand to look at my arm or face."

"Y'never you until ya try, Umi-chan! I finished my education degree, but since I got this diploma in childcare, I managed to get a job at the preschool down the road!" Honoka smiled, and Umi did her best to push the thought out of her head that her friend, who was probably 45 cents off the dollar, was doing better financially and psychologically than her: the girl who made the dean's list every semester and always achieved top marks. The girl who was in the archery club during school and became the captain of the university's club.

"They have an open day on Saturday, why don't you check it out? Maybe you'd be much more employable with something on the side?"

"I-I don't know. It seems like the archery place wants me there most d-"

"Umi-chan, whenever I see you at work, you look like a very sad potato that is just waiting to be peeled! C'mon, just go look at the place at least!" 

* * *

Although Umi had protested constantly, her friend had woken her up, practically threw her into her car that she had borrowed from her parents, and drove Umi and Umi's girlfriend, Kotori, to the college.

"Come on, Umi-chan!" Kotori had to pull the reluctant science graduate out of the car.

"This is stupid!"

"It's not!"

"I could be out looking for proper work!"

"You mean getting turned down?"

Honoka was met with a vicious scowl that instantly shut her up.

"J-just check it out for twenty minutes!"

Little did Umi know that those twenty minutes would be one of the wisest choices she would ever make in her entire life. 

* * *

Six months later, Umi walked out of the college in a hoodie with her sleeves rolled up. On her head was a little blue party cap, and in her hand, a framed certificate. She didn't have to wear some flowing robe that covered her up her tattooed arm, and she didn't have to spend a solid half-an-hour removing her piercings.

She felt lighter, but there was a sense of accomplishment as she walked over to Kotori, standing by Honoka's mother's car again.

"I'm so proud of you!" Kotori hugged Umi, getting a smile out of the newly qualified piercer. 

* * *

Dinner with the Sonodas could not have been more awkward that evening. The four of them sat on the floor at the Sonoda's traditional dinning table, the tatami underneath seemed less comfortable after the chairs of the college. Umi just stared at her bowl of rice, her tongue playing with her snakebite piercing on the left side of her mouth.

"So…What do you plan to do with this…qualification, Umi?"

Umi looked up at the sound of her name into her mother's eyes. She could see the disapproval, and her lips were pursed.

"W-Well, maybe I can get into pharmacy, or clinical work…"

"You did not need this, Umi. For god's sake, if you just got that thing removed from your arm and got rid of those stupid studs."

Umi averted her mother's harsh glare and dipped her head some more.

* * *

Umi loved her parents. They cared for her and were so happy when she got into university. When she got her first piercing, however, it started to go downhill from there.

They weren't in shock when Umi announced she was going to date Kotori. They weren't in shock when Umi picked biology as her major, but one piercing? One body modification? It was nothing but disappointment.

The heir of the Sonoda family, a talented archer, an intelligent science graduate, had her ears pierced, and the disappointment came knocking, then broke down the door.

When she got her first tattoo, the disappointment had practically moved into the Sonoda household and settled down on the couch. Umi would never forget the look of disgust in her father's eyes when she lifted up her sleeve to show the swollen, but beautiful design. 

* * *

So when Honoka, Kotori and Umi had saved up enough to move out into a flat, Umi didn't have to be asked twice.

"Hey, Umi-chan? Are you still awake?"

Umi's eyes flew open as she lay in her bed. It was the first night in the flat, and she could see why the rent was rather cheap.

The design was so…avant guard. It was a cross between a bunker and an attic, really, with no substance in between. Umi and Kotori's room had a rather low ceiling, that was tilted to a perfect diagonal shape. Umi hit her head on the roof at least three times that day.

"Yeah, I am. What is it?"

"You're over thinking."

"No I'm not."

"You're also a very bad liar, Umi-chan," Kotori snuggled closer and lay her head on Umi's chest. The pierced woman sighed and idly rubbed her girlfriend's shoulder.

"I just don't know what to do. I'm still getting turned down from every single job interview for bio labs, my parents aren't' talking to me and I'm worried I won't be able to pay rent."

"You worry too much."

"Are you just going to point out all of my flaws tonight?"

A soft giggle and a kiss on the cheek was all Umi got from Kotori.

"You have two degrees, Umi. Maybe try looking for work with the other one?"

"My parents will kill me."

"So will Honoka if you don't pay the rent. Who would've thought she'd be so uptight about this sort of thing?"

"I thought you said everything would be okay! Stop confusing me!"  
  
Kotori sighed, Umi could feel the air exhale from her as she lifted her head from her chest.

"Umi-chan, if you keep getting turned down for biology, why not try the cosmetic side of things? Just as a short term thing?"

Umi bit her lip and began the nervous habbit of chewing on her snakebite again. Kotori lightly pressed a kiss to her pierced nose and smiled sadly.

"I know how badly you want to be a biologist, but maybe the world isn't ready for professor Umi. Maybe they need a body piercer."

"That is the stupidest thing I've heard you say in like a month."

Kotori couldn't help but laugh. There wasn't much more to do in that situation. 

* * *

Umi soon found herself back in the same starbucks with the same person, staring into the same green tea latte with the same glum expression on her face. Hell, it was even the same day as last time.

"Let's just reiterate what's happened, Umi-chan," Honoka lifted her iced coffee with way to much syrup on top to her mouth.

"You have a degree in biology and a certificate in body piercing, there has to be something you can do, right?"

Umi didn't answer: all she could hear was the disappointment from her parents in the back of her mind. It wasn't enjoyable to not only have no source of income, but the constant dead weight of other people's opinions plastered onto your back.

Honoka sighed and pulled out her tablet again. She was currently in the process of buying a business herself, with Kotori as a business partner.

"Did you want to have a look through ol' Shiny-Screen again?"

"Couldn't hurt," Umi mumbled and took the tablet. She lazily scrolled through th job-hunting app, vision blurring over the notes.

"Umi-chan!"

She had taken such long flicks with her scrolling and was so immersed in her own head that she didn't hear Honoka at all. Umi jolted up when Honoka too her arm.

"You missed one!"

"Huh?" Umi noticed Honoka's finger quickly scrolling up to a new add.

'WANTED: FULL TIME BODY PIERCER

MUST HAVE A BACHERLOR'S DEGREE AND/OR LEGITAMATE QUALIFICATIONS'

Umi's eyes shot open. Honoka's smile broadened as she quickly whipped out her phone and punched in the number at the bottom of the advertisement.

"Umi-can, this could be it!"

"What are you doing?" Umi put down the laptop as Honoka shoved the phone up to the science graduate's heavily pierced ear.

Upon hearing the ringing, Umi's heart dropped again.

"H-Honoka!" She hissed, pushing the phone away.

"I just called them! You have to talk to them! It's perfect for you!"

"It is not!"

"You have both of those qualifications! Just talk to them!"

"Hello?"

The childish bickering and struggle over the phone came to a grinding halt when someone picked up.

"Talk to them!" Honoka hissed, practically pushing the phone against Umi's ear.

"H-Hello?" Umi's weak stutter was all that left her lips.

"Yes, hello! How can I help you?" The voice on the other end of the phone was rather chipper, but had a nasal tone. Maybe the person was sick?"

"I-I-I was enquiring about the position for a body piercer? Is this the right number"

"It sure is! Would you like to come in for an interview?"

Umi did not realise that her heart could plummet further than her stomach. It was pretty much in her nether regions now. Another interview,Another lot of small talk and questions, and another opportunity to get turned down for 'not being the right person.'

"S-Sure, why not?"

"Fantastic! Does Thursday evening suit?"

"S-Sure."

"Lovely, I'll give you the details now. Do you have a pen and paper handy?"

"I do," Umi grabbed the pencil she had been doing a crossword with and ripped a tiny shred of newspaper off to write, ignoring the thumbs up and muted cheers from Honoka opposite her.

* * *

"…This is the place?"

Umi looked up at a small empty shop. The sign said 'LILY WHITE,' in cursive writing. The lights were dim, and there was only one chair inside the store.

Umi stuffed her hands deeper into her suit jacket's pockets as the wind picked up. The street was rather quiet, and the other shops were huge in comparison to this shack.

There was a department store on the other side of the street. Next to that, a tailoring shop, gelato stand, pharmacy and vet. Why was this place here?

"Hello!"

Umi was pulled out of her thoughts again, and squealed at the sound of a sudden human voice.

She whirled around, hands up to protect herself as she wished she had brought her bow and arrow. This part of town wasn't as nice as where she lived, she should have known better.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," the voice apologized as Umi lowered her hands, expecting some generic business person with a synthetic smile plastered onto their face.  
Umi's jaw dropped.

The person was a woman around the same height as Umi. She had long, purple hair that was tied back in low twin-tails, and vibrant green eyes. Umi spotted a stud in her left nostril. Her neck was bare, and she wore a jacket, but the low cut of the woman's dress revealed half of an owl tattoo across her chest. Umi's eyes lit up, that was surely a real tattoo, exposed to the world!

The woman was extremely buxom, and her purple dress stopped at her knees, and the black jacket was left open. She had a beret on her head, and her smile never faltered once.

"You must be Sonoda Umi, please to meet you!" The woman had the same light, nasally voice as to that on the phone, so Umi jointed the dots as the woman in question outstretched her hand.

"Y-yes, I'm Sonoda U-" The pierced girl caught sight of the outstretched hand, and she stared at the hand. There was another tattoo on the back of the hand.

"I'm Tojo Nozomi, it's lovely to meet you," the woman smiled as Umi shook her hand. The woman then took out a pair of keys from her jacket pocket and turned to face the door.

"Please, come on in, unless you'd like to do the interview outside?" 

* * *

The two stepped into the shop, and Umi gazed around at the pictures of different designs on the walls. Flowers, snakes, dragons, devils, anchors, ships, tigers, knives, women and pretty much anything else Umi could think of. There was a picture for everything. The place stunk of sanitary products.

"Please excuse the emptiness, I'm still in the stage of settling in. I've only had the place for a week or so."

"So, this is a new business?" Umi looked around, taking in every detail of the walls and equipment. The woman, by the name of Nozomi, hummed with a nod and opened a door to the left of the back wall.

"It took a lot of time, but I finally own my own business!"

"Congratulations," Umi let a small smile form on her lips as Nozomi held the door open for her.

"Thank you."

The room had a single desk with a chair, computer and lounge in the corner. On the walls were canvas paintings: the designs were a mixture of flowers and renaissance work.

"Have a seat, Miss Sonoda," Nozomi gestured to the seat on the other side of the desk. Nozomi sat down in front of the computer and opened a draw.

"Would you like a cigarette?"

"N-no thank you, I don't smoke," Umi quickly said as Nozomi looked up, now with a white stick in her mouth. She smiled, and quickly lit up the cigarette.

"Good, it's a horrible habit, yet here I am," Nozomi grinned, and Umi opened her bag. She took out her resume and placed it on the table neatly.

"Here, just incase."

"You came prepared, I see," Nozomi smiled. Umi instantly became self-conscious: we wore a blue button up shirt with a black blazer and a pair of smart black pants. It was her typical job interview attire. She only piercing she had left in were her ears.

"So, Miss Sonoda, tell me about yourself."

"About how I'd be good for your business?"

"No no, just you. Tell me about you."

Umi bit her lip: she had never had that that question asked her before in an interview! Umi tucked a loose strand of blue hair behind her ear, and then took a deep breath.

"Um, well, I graduated from university nearly two years ago, then I picked up a certificate In body piercing only, like, seven months ago. I had to quit my job at an archery range to study, b-"

"Miss Sonoda," Nozomi smiled, but there was something in her voice that made Umi stop talking at once.

"Tell me about you. Not your qualifications, not about your job experiences: about you."

Umi instantly retraced into herself, as if Nozomi had bitten her. The woman's smile dropped into a grin as she held the cigarette in her right hand.

"It's true that would like a body piercer in my shop, since it is a body art store, but I don't want just any run-of-the-mill body piercer."

Umi bit her lip, and just let her mouth run.

"Okay, well…My name is Sonoda Umi. I was born on the 15th of March. I enjoy archery, and my parents own a dojo. I also really like piercings, and I have a lot myself, but I always take them out for interviews."

"I noticed from the holes in your face."

Umi let a smile form on her lips as she rolled up her sleeves on her left arm.

"I also really like tattoos. This one was done for me by an artist when I was in university."

"Kusuda Aina, by any chance?"

"Y-Yes! How did you know?"

"That's a freehanded koi fish. Kussun always does that with her sleeves," Nozomi smiled and blew out smoke away from Umi.

"When you're her apprentice for a long time, you pick up certain things."

Umi joined the dots: apprentice of a tattoo artist, tattoo-like pictures on the walls…

"You're opening a tattoo studio?"

"Indeed I am," Nozomi winked and tapped the cigarette against the ashtray on her desk.

"I'd like to have a body piercer on full-time with me, since it'll technically be a body art studio. It's common for studios to have both, but like I said, I don't want just any piercer, Umi."

Nozomi flicked through the resume in front of her, and her eyebrows flew up into her hair.

"You went to Tokyo University I see?"

"Yes, I have a bachelor of science from there, majoring in biology."

"I went to the same university, but I was at the fine arts college campus. In fact, I graduated a year before you."

"What a coincidence," Umi grinned, suddenly feeling a lot more comfortable.

Out of a habit, she rolled up her other sleeves to have her other forearm exposed. There was nothing on her right forearm, so the koi fish on her left stood out nicely.

"It was a nice university, their labs were amazing."

"You got the good campus, then," Nozomi's lip curled into a smirk.

"So, biology…that's a broad topic."

"Yeah, although I mainly focused on marine biology. I…wanted to work in the labs to research reef protection," Umi's voice died away upon realisings that this was the wrong interview to be discussing that particular topic.

'You idiot! There goes your chance at a source of income!'

"I take it the biological science industry is a hard one to get into?"

Umi shrunk into herself further at the question.

"Yes, I've been trying for years to land a spot, but…"

"They don't want you."

Umi nodded, staring down at the tattoo on her left forearm. Nozomi rolled up her own sleeve to expose her left arm: flowers swirled around her skin.

"I lived abroad for a bit, and when shit hit the fan and my income began to become a real problem, no one would take me for an 'office' job."

Umi looked up, taking in the woman's features.

"There was this...silent prejudice towards me, because I had these beauties," she gestured to her arm with a grin.

"I completed my apprenticeship nearly two years ago, and I've worked hard to buy my own business and support my family. I'd also like to start anew family, one with people I can trust and people who know that this is a safe environment, free of prejudice."

Umi was not prepared for the question that Nozomi asked next.

"Would you like to join that environment, Umi?"

Brown eyes shot wide open, and for one of the very few times in her life, her heart actually rose out of her chest.

"A-Are you serious?!"

"Deadly serious, my friend," Nozomi smiled and rested her chin on her hands.

"I've been looking for someone like you: intelligent, polite, a little on the quiet side, but I like that you have more than one qualification," she nodded to the resume in front of her.

"Not to mention that although it took a little prodding, we were able to have a conversation. You rarely get those in interviews."

Umi just wanted someone to pinch her, surely this was a dream! Did she just get accepted for a job?!

"If you'd like the job, it's yours,"

Umi did not need to be told twice.

* * *

"I'm off!"

"Umi-chan! You forgot your wallet!"

The blue-haired girl whirled around and gasped.

"Oh! Thanks, Kotori!" Umi took the wallet out of Kotori's hands and made to turn to the door again, but her girlfriend grabbed her hand.

"Umi-chan."

She turned around again, and Kotori giggled. Umi felt gentle fingertips fondle with the jewelry in her nose.

"Your septum was crooked. We can't have you looking shabby on your first day at work, now can we?"

"N-not at all," Umi smiled, and kissed Kotori on the lips, then quickly on the cheek.

"I'll be off now!"

That giddy feeling of her life finally moving forward was what gave Umi that extra spring in her step as she skipped along the footpath to the bus shelter.

* * *

"Umi-chan! You have a client!"

"Coming!" Umi stared at herself in the mirror of her very own piercing room. mi smiled.

For once, she could leave in all her piercings. Her neat silver jewelry shone under the freshly fitted light that was blinding her. The stainless steel counter was glinting against the keys to the store, that were in pocket of her black jeans.

The smell of sanitary products backhanded her in the face, but the grin never left Umi's face.

For once, she could be who she was and not get judged.

* * *

As someone with tattoos and body modifications, I know how hard it can be to get an occupation. However, we're lucky that in this day an age, there's an amount of cooperations that allow them.

My tumblr is tarot-tatas

Thanks for reading, I'll see you back at 'Petals and Sketches'

\- DJValkyrie


End file.
